Substituted di (isocyanatophenyl) ureas



2,757,185 sunsrrru'rnn DI(ISOCYANATOPHENYL) UREAS Eric Barthel, In, ,New castle, DeL, assignor to E. I. du Pont 'de Nemours and Company, Wilmington, DeL, a corporation of Delaware NoDrawing. Application June 30, 1953, i

7 Serial No. 365,280 r 4'Claims. (Cl. 260-453) This. invention relates to a new class of chemical products and more particularly tonew substituted di(isocyanatophenyl) ureas.

It' is' known that isocyanates react with water to form substituted ureas, and that when water reacts with a polyisocyanate, polymeric products are ordinarily obtained. U. S. Patent No. 2,597,025 to Orth discloses the formationof resinous, potentially reactive products by thetreatment of aromatic diisocyanates with'from 0.3 to 0.6 mole of water per mole of diisocya'nate in a mutual solvent such as pyridine at 100 C. These'products are useful adhesives which set rapidly upon further treatment with water. Orth also discloses that if less than 0.4 mole of water per mole ofwdiisocyanate is used or if the temperature of reaction is below 70 C., polymerization tends to be incomplete and crystalline materialseparates out in a few-hours. The crystallinematerial soformed, however,

although possessing some reactivity, has been found to contain only about 7 to 12% as much isocyanate by weight aswas present in the diisocyanate starting material.

It is anobject of this invention to provide a new class of diisocyanates which are relatively stable during storage, but which are capable of reacting-with compounds containing active hydrogen atoms. It is a further object to provide diisocyanates whichvthemselves contain'active hydrogen atoms available for reaction. Further objects will appear from the detailed description of this invention whichzfollowsi The products of this invention are di(3-isocyanatophenyl) ureas inwhich each phenylgroup is substituted in the.4-position.with. an alkyl or alkoxy radical or-With a chlorine atom. They have the formula:

in which R has the significance stated above, at a temperature between and 30 C. Preferably the reaction I is carried out by adding the Water to a solution of the diisocyanate in an oxygen-containing solvent free from active hydrogen groups and selected from the class consisting of esters, ethers and ketones, while the solution is being agitated. This process is described and claimed in U. S. application Serial No. 365,229 of Ralph L. Pelley, bearing even date herewith. The reaction may also be carried out in the absence of a solvent, as for example by 2,757,185 Patented July 31, 1956 ice passing nitrogen .saturated with moisture 1 through a liquid diisocyanate. p i

The di(isocyanatophenyl) ureas ofthis invention may be prepared fromQA-phenylene diisocyanates in which the 1-position is occuplied by a chlorine atom or by an alkyl or alkoxy radical such as methyl, ethyl, propyl, butyl, hexyl, methoxy, ethoxy, butoxy and the like. Compounds containingthe lower alkyl or alkoxy radicals, containing upto about4 carbon atoms are most conveniently obtained and for most purposes are preferred. The alkyl, alkoxy, or chlorine substituent in the l-position appears to have a shielding elfect on the adjacent isocyanate group,

sothat under the conditions of the present process, it does not react with water. Compounds such as metaor para-phenylene diisocyanate which do'not possess such a shielding substituent will not form monomeric ureas when they are reacted with water, but form polymeric products instead. v

When a solvent is employed, it should be one which dissolves the diisocyanate and at least part of thewater. It must also be free from groups which are reactive with isocyanates, for example those containing active hydrogen atoms. Thels'olvent should give a neutral reaction in Water so as not to act as apolyrnerization catalyst. Ethers such as diethyl ether and dichloroethyl ether, ketones such as acetone, methylisobutyl ketone, methylamyl ketone and mesityl oxide, and esters such as isopropyl acetate, and ethyl chloroacetate'are satisfactory solvents.

It is not necessarythat all of the water be soluble in the amount of thesolvent used; Mixtures of solvents may be used in which only one component is an oxygen-containing solvent. fFor example-a mixture of n-heptane and 10% dioxane by volume is suitable for this process. Ethyl acetate is the preferred solvent, as it is possible when using this material to add all of the water at once, whereas with solventssuchas ether or acetone, the -water must be added rather slowly in order to avoid some undesired polymerization. p r

The amount of water'used should be approximatelythe theoretical amount required to react with two isocyanate groups. The reaction may be carried outat' any temperature from 0 to 30 C. At higher temperatures, the quality of the urea is inferior, probably because of contamination with polymericproducts.

As the reaction proceeds, the diaryl urea precipitates and may be filtered .oiffor otherwise separated from the solvents or from unreacteddiisocyanate. The precipitate is then Washed with'a little solvent and is dried, preferably in a vacuum oven. When a solvent isused, it maybere cycled without further purification and used in theprepaf ration of the next batch. Overall yields of 90 to are thus obtainable.

The di( isocyanatophenyl') ureas are obtained as, while crystalline material, which is stable in storage and is easily handled. Their vapor pressures are low as compared with the liquid diisocyanates, which are considerably more hazardous.

The products of this invention and the method of obtaining them are illustrated in the following examples.

Example 1 34.8 parts of 2,4-tolylene diisocyanate are dissolved in 90 parts of ethyl acetate in a vessel equipped with an agitator, thermometer, cooling bath, and drying tube on crystalline di(3isocyanato-4-methylphenyl) urea which represents a 76% conversion of the diisocyanate. Analysis showns 25.85% NCO compared to a theory of 26.1% The melting point determined by the copper block capillary method described in Laboratory Technique in Organic Chemistry by Avery Morton, McGraw-Hill (1938), page 32 is 176-179 C. when the rate of heating is per minute.

Example 2 Into an agitated vessel equipped with a reflux condenser and a thermometer are placed 900 parts of anhydrous ethyl ether and 250 parts of 2,4-tolylene diisocyanate. The agitation is started and 12.9 parts of water are added slowly at a uniform rate over a period of 1.5 hours. Carbon dioxide is evolvedand escapes through the reflux condenser. Afterabout 30 minutes a white precipitate begins to form. The temperature of the reaction is held at 2025 C. by cooling. After all of the water has been added, stirring is continued at the same temperature until the evolution of carbon dioxide ceases, which is about 2 hours. The charge is then poured onto a vacuum filter and filtered. The precipitate is washed with about 200 parts of ether and sucked dry. It is then dried in a vacuum oven at 50 C. The yield of dried di(3-isocyanato- 4-methylphenyl) urea is 176 parts (75% of theory). Analysis shows an -NCO content of 26.0% as compared with the theoretical 26.1%

Example 3 Into an agitated vessel are placed 79 parts of acetone and 7.26 parts of 1-methoxy-2,4-phenylene diisocyanate. To this solution is added withstirring 0.344 part of water over a period of about 15 minutes. The temperature is held at 20 to 25 C. with cooling. Carbon dioxide is evolved and bubbles out through a reflux condenser. The solution is stirred overnight. The white precipitate is then filtered off and washed with about 25 parts of acetone and dried in a vacuum oven at 50 C. The dried product weighs 1.8 parts and has a melting point of 241-245 C. Analysis shows an NCO content of 23.7% (theory is 23.7%) and total nitrogen by Dumas method of 15.15% (theory 15.8%), corresponding to di(3-isocyanato-4- methoxyphenyl) urea.

. Example 4 37 parts of' 4. minute period and stirring is continued for an additional 30 minutees. The crystals are filtered ofi immediately, washed with a little ether and then dried. The product weighs 4.15 parts. Analysis for NCO shows 23.7% compared to'theory of 23.2% for the compound di(3- isocyanato-4-chlorophenyl) urea.

The substituted di(isocyanatophenyl) ureas of this invention may be employed in the same way as other diisocyanates, but are advantageous in having a lower and more controllable reactivity. 'Their high melting point and low vapor pressure make them much less hazardous to handle than the conventional diisocyanates and they are also more stable during storage. Although they possess lower reactivity at ordinary temperatures, they become quite reactive when the temperature is raised. When these compounds react with other materials, the reaction products possess increased reactivity toward additional isocyanate, by virtue of the active urea hydrogen atoms present in these compounds. These properties make them particularly useful in the curing of elastomers prepared from the reaction between diisocyanates, water and polyesters or polyethers. Their use in this connection is disclosed and claimed in application Serial No. 435,055 of Frederick B. Hill, Jr., filed June 7, 1954. The substituted di(isocyanatophenyl) ureas are also useful in forming adhesives, plastics and the like.

In view of the ease with which isocyanates normally react with active hydrogen atoms, it is quite surprising that the compounds of this invention which contain both isocyanate groups and active urea hydrogens in the same molecule should exist and be relatively stable at ordinary temperatures.

What is claimed is:

1 A substituted di(3-isocyanatophenyl) urea having the formula:

References Cited in the file of this patent FOREIGN PATENTS Canada Apr. 15, 1952 OTHER REFERENCES Bayer: Angew. Chem, A/59, Jahrg. 1947/Nr. 9, p. 264.

Siefken: Ann. 562, -136 (1949), as abstracted in 44 C. A., 114 (1950 

1. A SUBSTITUTED DI(0-ISOCYANATOPHENYL) UREA HAVING THE FORMULA: IN WHICH R REPRESENTS A MEMBER OF THE CLASS CONSISTING OF LOWER ALKYL AND LOWER ALKOXY RADICALS AND CHLORINE ATOMS. 